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Ken Stevens

12 May 2018, 17:54

Verney Lionel Danby Danvers was born in Lisbon in 1895 where his father, Alan was an electrical engineer working as an agent for the Edison Gower-Bell Company. He had been made a Portuguese baron in recognition of services. “Verney” and “Danby” were honorific forenames recalling early ancestors. “Danby) is not an uncommon usage but this seems to have been the first use of ”Verney” as a forename.

Verney’s father Alan, left Portugal in 1902, presumably being when Verney also left. An art biography website suggests that Verney studied at Hornsey College of Art in 1911, At the end of that year, he was on the “Lusitania” out of Liverpool, reaching New York on 5th January 1912. Next of kin given as cousin Margaret Higham [?] of 12 Henry Street London. (Why next of kin not his parents? His father was a bit free with his affections and also might have been in South America - see citations). The manifest describes Verney as a 16 year old scholar en route to the Dominion Hotel in Victoria B.C. to visit his cousin Frank Braine. Frank , born in Liverpool,was on the same voyage, listed as 47 , real estate agent, and wife Rosa 47,both of Cricklewood, visiting a friend Mr E.H.Mansfifield 219 Pemberton Block Victoria B.C.. Next of kin Mother Mrs Braine 34 Richboro Road Cricklewood.

The 1920 Essex electoral register shows Verney at The Hall, Boxted, Essex.
He had become a commercial artist by then producing posters for a variety of railway and tram companies and for others, such as Shell and the fashion house Bobby & Co Ltd.. His book “Training in Commercial Art” was published by Pitmans in 1928.

He ran The Court School of Art for a while but this was wound up, by notice in the London Gazette in 1923. In the 1937 Kelly’s Directory, he is listed as “Danvers, Verney L, Commercial Artist, 69 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Holborn.

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